Age of Mythology

PC real-time strategy fans are somewhat spoiled this year, with two
of the three biggest franchises in the genre getting major
overhauls. Blizzard's WarCraft III saw the series take a radical
new direction earlier this year, earning rave reviews and an
overwhelmingly positive reception from its fans, and now it's the
turn of Microsoft's franchise, Age of Empires, to show off its new
colours with its third incarnation, Age of Mythology.

Déjà vu

It's quote time. 'Elephants forever!' Name that film!

On the surface at least, Age of Mythology seems to have rather
a lot in common with WarCraft III in terms of what's been added.
Like WarCraft, Age of Mythology takes the basic gameplay of the
earlier games in the series, adds significantly enhanced story
aspects, RPG-like hero characters and a selection of more complex,
plot-driven missions, then wraps the whole lot up in a 3D engine.
As a result, the two games are destined to be compared at every
turn - which is somewhat unfair, because behind these superficial
similarities lie two very different types of game.

Where WarCraft III moved heavily into the realms of RPG gameplay,
with heroes who level up and a focus on micro-management of small
numbers of units, Age of Mythology has gone in almost entirely the
opposite direction, going instead for gameplay focused around huge
numbers of units and heroes who, outside of their duties in
carrying the plot forward, are really no more than powerful special
units. At its most basic level, Age of Mythology strays far less
from the path of the traditional RTS than WarCraft III did - while
still managing to innovate within the boundaries of the franchise
itself.

Good God

Dragons are better than flying horses anyday

The key
difference between Age of Mythology and earlier titles in the
franchise - and it's this that is the reason for the change of
title as well - is the addition of mythological units, powers and
gods. Advancing through the ages of the game now requires that you
choose a new god to worship with each advancement - giving you a
highly customisable selection of godly powers, mythological
creatures and civilisation enhancements to play with, depending on
which god you choose at each advancement.

Obviously, with this, any semblance of historical accuracy carried
by the original games goes out the window - the single-player
campaign starts with Atlantis being attacked by Krakens, to give
you some idea of the scale of mythological silliness we're talking
about here. To the credit of the developers, however, they've done
a vast amount of homework in researching the ancient mythologies
they cover in the game - namely Greek, Egyptian and Norse - which
makes the game feel just as cohesive and consistent as its
predecessors.

Divine Intervention

Right, what's this all aboat then?

The big question, of
course, is whether the addition of powerful hero units and
mythological units - never mind godly powers - unbalances the
gameplay. Thankfully, Ensemble Studios has not lost its touch, and
the more fantastical units fit in perfectly alongside traditional
infantry, archers and siege weapons, which are the mainstay of Age
of Empires gameplay. Rather than making mythological units more
powerful than anything else on the battlefield, the developer has
chosen to simply add them into the complex rock, paper, scissors
game which underlies any good real-time strategy title.

God powers are equally well balanced, although they can sometimes
feel rather pathetically weak for commands which are meant to
represent the intervention of deities in the affairs of men. Those
of us brought up in faiths which wax lyrical about rains of fire on
Sodom and Gomorrah may be somewhat disappointed to note that Zeus,
father of the gods, won't stretch himself beyond a quick
thunderbolt that kills a single unit, while the rather promising
Plague of Serpents ability summons a shower of the weakest snakes
you've ever encountered. Each ability can only be used once,
although there are so many of them that in general you'll be able
to find one that improves your personal playing style.

Love Triangle

A mythical traffic warden in action

Although the range
of customisations available to each race in the game is huge,
thanks to the various different gods demanding worship, long-time
fans of the series may be somewhat disappointed by the miniscule
number of initial races to choose from. Ensemble has taken a leaf
from Blizzard's book on this particular topic, providing three
races with very different types of gameplay, and then aiming to
satisfy traditional AoE fans with the ability to customise those
races further. The approach works well; compared to the almost
identical races offered to the player in earlier games in the
series, the three central races in Age of Mythology are
entertainingly different and players will probably play with each
of them for a while before settling on their favourite.

The single-player campaign provides a good grounding in how each
race works, providing a single narrative thread that runs through
campaigns as each of the races. The storyline itself is relatively
entertaining, borrowing aspects from a variety of ancient myths and
using WarCraft-style in-engine cut scenes to advance the plot.
Missions in single player are varied and generally a lot of fun,
with a good gradient on the difficulty curve which makes the game
challenging but certainly not frustratingly difficult, even for a
relatively unskilled RTS player.

The Third Place

I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE

Moving into three dimensions
hasn't made much of an impact on the way Age of Mythology plays,
although the developer has tweaked a few things to take advantage
of the new graphics engine. Building placement no longer conforms
to a strict grid, for example, with the player able to drop down
buildings anywhere that there's room for them - particularly useful
when constructing walls and other defences. In general, the whole
game seems smoother and slicker, and not even with dozens of units
on screen does the frame rate take a hit. The view can also be
zoomed out significantly further than it could in WarCraft III,
which is a good thing in our view since one of the most annoying
aspects of WarCraft III over extended play was the downright
claustrophobic camera.

Audio-wise, the music in Age of Mythology is quite good -
particularly the rousing title theme of the game - although it
can't quite compare to the superb orchestral score which
accompanied WarCraft III. There's really not much to write home
about here in terms of sound effects, either. As with its
predecessors, AoM takes the time to make sure that each race has
accurately recorded sounds, so peasants and soldiers acknowledge
orders in their native languages - a nice touch, but that's about
the height of it as far as sounds go.

Conclusion

Age of Mythology is certainly going to suffer badly by comparison
to WarCraft III. The latter game is very innovative and has
production values higher than just about any game ever released on
the PC, while Age of Mythology is simply a worthy successor to an
excellent series. It's in that context that it's most fair to judge
AoM - as a game which improves upon its predecessors and will
provide hours and hours of entertainment for fans of the Age of
Empires titles or of traditional RTS gameplay. WarCraft III is
simply in a league of its own, and there's no real reason not to
own both games if you're an RTS fan.